“Schuler, come in, come in!” Friedrich Wahlberg said, rising from behind his desk and coming around with his hand extended. “Thanks for coming in!”
“What can I do for you, Herr Wahlberg?” Georg was concerned and a little nervous.
“You’ve been doing well, now, for a couple of months, Schuler,” Wahlberg said. “And we need steady workers. I’m going to put you on permanently, if you wish.”
“No more day labor?” Georg said.
“No more day labor.”
“When do I start?” Georg said.
The word got around quickly on the jobsite. Georg kept getting congratulations on his good fortune all day long. At quitting time, his workmates suggested that he come to the Bierstube with them to celebrate his new status.
“Georg! It is time to go, my friend,” Pieter Doorn said, coming up to the group.
“I’m sorry, fellows,” Georg said, “I have a meeting to go to.”
At the meeting, the leader said, “Tonight we are going to look at steps two and three. ‘We have come to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity’ and ‘made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand him.’ ”
Georg raised his hand. “What does that mean? Is this a church? Are we Catholic or Protestant?”
“Neither, Georg. We are not a church, either Catholic or Lutheran or Calvinist. We are open to all. That’s what it means to give ourselves over to the care of God as we understand him.”
“This is something that came from the up-timers?”
“Yes, but you do not see any up-timers here. Anyone can use these steps, anyone. We just call it the meeting. But up-time, they called this thing of ours Alcoholics Anonymous.”
One of the other attendees chimed in. “It’s like that new army that they are organizing. The Salvation Army.”
“The what?” Doorn said, eyebrows raised.
“That’s what they call it. It is an army aimed at doing good, while all the other armies are aimed at doing harm. It was started by a woman named Wahlberg. Both the Lutherans and the Catholics are in favor of it.”
“Both?” Georg said, unbelieving.
“Both. The Lutherans are supplying funds, and the Catholics are as well. The cardinal and Father Spee both have been seen singing with the Salvation Army on streetcorners.”
“Oh,” Georg said, “I think I have seen the Salvation Army. There were some people in uniforms playing music and singing ‘ Ein feste Burg ’ the other day on the corner across from the Bierstube. ”
“ Ja! That was them, or some of them anyway,” a middle-aged man, who looked like he’d been through a lot, said.
“So it doesn’t matter what faith we follow,” said the leader, “as long as we turn our lives over to the higher power.”
“Well, it is certainly true that I cannot control my drinking on my own,” Georg said.
Georg continued to attend meetings, stay sober and work through the steps. One day, Wahlberg called him in again.
“I wish to promote you to being a work-gang boss. You have shown that you are responsible and we have need of reliable supervisors. Do you accept?”
“Of course,” Georg said, “and thank you, Herr Wahlberg!”
Georg’s friends were waiting for him and they carried him, protesting, all the way to the ale house and pressed a jack of beer into his hands. Before he knew it, he’d downed the beer and was on his second and then his third. He’d fallen off the wagon, and by the time he stumbled out of the Bierstube and headed home, he’d fallen hard.
That night, the nightmare returned for the first time in several weeks.
In the morning, he went looking for Pieter Doorn, who was not only his friend, but had been serving as his sponsor in AA.
“I got drunk last night, Pieter,” Georg said. “I fell off the cart, hard.”
“That was last night,” Doorn said. “Today is a new day. We have to live our lives one day at a time. Sometimes it winds up being one minute at a time.”
“But I…”
“What?”
“I have done some horrible things. I do not think God wants me to give him my life.”
“I think,” said Doorn, “that God forgives us our sins. But, as the steps say, there are some things we must do, in order to make ourselves worthy of forgiveness.”
“What should I do?”
“What religion are you?”
“I was a Catholic, but now I don’t know. We did vicious things in the name of the Catholic Church.”
“You know what the next steps are?”
“Not really,” Georg said.
“Well, next, you have to make a searching and fearless moral inventory.”
“Oh, I know what I’ve done, and what a horrible mess I’ve made of my life.”
“Have you admitted to God, to yourself, and to somebody else, the exact nature of your wrongs?” Doorn said.
“I…no. I’ve never told anyone else what happened. God knows, of course, and I do.”
“What did you do?”
“It was during the sack. I was in Pappenheim’s troop, and we had a sector of the city to loot. I…I killed some people.”
“You were a soldier.”
“Not like that. I…” Georg stopped.
“What? You have to spit it out, Georg. Tell me.”
“I killed a woman and I killed a little girl. They haunt me and I have been drinking to forget what I did.” Georg sagged with relief that he had finally been able to tell someone what he’d done.
“I cannot judge you for what you did during the sack, Georg,” Doorn said. What you did is between you and the people you injured and God. Have you tried to make amends?”
“How? They’re both dead, and I don’t think I can even find the house again since the sack. I quit the army. I’ve been drunk most of the time since. Things are very different now. Nothing is the same, except for the Dom and St. James’ church, you know.”
“Then you are going to have to figure out how to make amends indirectly,” Doorn said. “You will be in deep danger of losing your sobriety, and maybe your soul.”
“I think I’ve lost my soul already, Pieter,” Georg said.
“Can you sing?” that night’s meeting leader, who went by the name of Hans, asked Georg on the way out of the basement of St. James’ church.
“Loudly,” Georg said.
“But not well, then.”
“Nobody has asked me to be a soloist at the new Opera House, if that’s what you mean,” Georg said. “Why do you ask?”
“Well, the woman who is in charge of that new Salvation Army is looking for some singers. Some bandsmen, too. Do you play an instrument?”
“No.”
“You might talk to the Army, anyway, Georg. You need to start taking care of the eighth and ninth steps.”
“I…”
“Just think about it. You have shared about your background in the meeting, Georg, and I think it might be
